A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews

An emotionally charged story of music, abuse and, ultimately, hope.Beck hates his life. He hates his violent mother. He hates his home. Most of all, he hates the piano that his mother forces him to play hour after hour, day after day. He will never play as she did before illness ended her career and left her bitter and broken. But Beck is too scared to stand up to his mother, and tell her his true passion, which is composing his own music – because the least suggestion of rebellion on his part ends in violence.When Beck meets August, a girl full of life, energy and laughter, love begins to awaken within him and he glimpses a way to escape his painful existence. But dare he reach for it?

It’s rare when a book makes me feel so strongly for the characters that I just want to reach inside the pages, take their hand and whisk them away to somewhere safe. Most of the times I read about adults, and somewhere deep inside I know they are going to be fine eventually. But Beck is 15 years old, and as a teenager has less opportunities to help himself, and that uncertainty I felt the whole time was quite overwhelming.

The friendship that turned into love between Beck and August was so cute and so precious! August, the girl with sunshine in her eyes is everything Beck isn’t. Outgoing, confident, chatty, and most importantly has the sort of family I hope I will have one day. Loving parents who embrace their daughter’s quirky personality and open their arms to Beck, no questions asked.

Beck’s quiet rebellion against his abusive and German-insult-shouting mother – a.k.a. The Maestro as he refers to her – begins after he gets a taste of freedom August just knows as normal daily life and he realizes that what happens to him can happen to his little sister, Joey any day. But can he win? Can a fifteen year old boy really do anything?

So, what can you expect to find in this book?

Absolutely beautiful writing. Prose that flows like classical music.

An adorable child. In spite of her young age Beck’s little sister Joey has a lot to say, and she says it in a way you want to listen to her. I’m always wary of child characters as they tend to get annoying sometimes, but five year old Joey is pure cuteness.

A wonderful family, the Freys. Their house is filled with rescue animals, they love each other and their daughter. Serious life & parenting goals there for me!

Music. At one point I actually started playing some classical music in the background while I was reading. It was awesome.

A deep exploration into abusive child-parent relationship, written with so much compassion and care.

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42 comments

I really enjoyed this book as well. I thought it was a terrific debut and despite me not reading contemporary I had a blast.
What did you think of Mastro? I kind of fell sorry for her (not condoning her behaviour but understanding where it was coming from).

Thanks for doing a review of this one I’ve been looking forward to it but I’ve been admittedly a little unsure because she has such a strong (and excellent) voice on her blog but at the same time I don’t want to read the book and feel like I’m reading her blog. So I’m definitely going to order and give it a go 🙂

I’m looking forward to reading this one. I don’t always read her blog since we tend to read different types of books, but her voice is so quirky and funny that I sometimes pop over just for a dose of it. It’s exciting that her book has been published–I’m so glad to see a rave review!

Oh, i hope you’ll like it!
She posted some pics of the paperback and now i’m tempted to get it because it’s so pretty! There were some patterns on some pages. And since she mentioned there will be changes between the ARC and the final book i’m really curious

The fatc that analyze parent-child relationship scares me in a good way, meaning that might be similar to my situation. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna cry my eyes out.
I’m so happy and positive that the book is getting so many amazing reactions

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